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Thursday, July 26, 2012

Raise your hand if you love the smell of idiocy in the morning!

Me. "Chicken with a side of guilt, please!"

What's wrong?

Apparently, Dan Cathy, CEO of Chick-fil-a (CFA), issued a statement to a Baptist magazine in defense of the definition of marriage remaining as a union between a man and a woman. This caused the socially conscious Muppets to pull their toys from the CFA children's meal on the basis of gay rights. This has spiraled directly into the political arena (election year much?).

This is a "Holy Things" blog, so I'm focusing on the spiritual aspects of this controversy. Who has the right to express their deep seated beliefs? And, how should those deep-seated beliefs be displayed in the corporate world?

Who has the right?

The first thing that struck me as idiotic is this: Dan Cathy said this to a Baptist magazine! It's not like he shoved these comments down the throat of corporate America. This was not for Time magazine or People magazine. This is not the voice of America, this is the voice of the Baptists! In fact, given this backdrop, it's amazing that Dan Cathy was so diplomatic with his response. All he said was, in essence, I support the traditional family. Note, while it implies that he is against gay marriage, he doesn't say anything in the negative.

The next players are the Muppets. I love the Muppets--present tense. I think they are hilarious & usually right on target. They have every right to be socially conscious & make business decisions based on their beliefs. This right should be enjoyed by both the Muppets & CFA. The only way this would be wrong is if the Muppets broke contract in order to back out, though I'm sure they covered themselves.

A side note to this whole business relationship, didn't these companies research each other before forming this partnership? The Muppets have always been progressive. CFA has always been Baptist. Hello? Idiocy much?

Politicians have also dug their claws into this opportunity. However, they have every right to stand up for the interests of the people. Do the people want to take a moral stand & ban a restaurant from their fair city? Would they rather have all the new jobs that come with a new restaurant? I suppose the politicians have a moral obligation to listen to the people who elected him & determine the right course of action from there.

Brokeback Kermit?--I couldn't resist

How do personal beliefs inform business practice?

To be honest, I have never felt like I've been preached at in any CFA restaurant or TV ad. I don't leave the restaurant with a belly half-full of chicken, topped off by spiritual guilt. I guess cows know better than to beat people up with the Bible.

If CFA decided to be more open with their Baptist beliefs, would their chicken taste more foul than fowl? Perhaps, but I see nothing close to fundamentalism or condemnation in any of the comments so far. It seems to me that what we are seeing from corporate CFA is as close to a "Christian fast food joint" as we're going to find.

Scripture says

Give to government what they require, give to God what He requires (Mark 12.17 CMJ Version). As long as CFA does that, they should be fine. Hopefully their business practices are sound, because you know everyone's looking for them to crap their pants (taxes, hiring practices).

May God be graceful to everyone involved in this saga.

What do you think?

Seems everyone has an opinion. Do you think there is a right or wrong party here? Did Chick-fil-a single out a group for discrimination? Are the Muppets blowing this out of proportion? Can we at least agree that the politicians probably have ulterior motives here?